Why deem it shame a fair one's eurls to shear?
Why rise in wrath or sit in sorrow here?
Rather rejoice, make merrv, call for wine;
When clipped, the Cypress doth most trim appear."
Men love long hair. Hair has been termed " woman's crowning glory,'' and yet women have nowadays cut short this crowning glory into what has picturesquely been termed the shingle. Is this fashion new or original? Why did the first woman who cut off, or who cut short, her hair do so? Well, it was notorious through the ages that women were always ready to sacrifice something. In olden days religious observances sometimes necessitated cutting the hair. In some communities some magic, mysterious power was believed to be attached to the hair. There was the historic case of Samson. When his hair was shorn his strength departed. Early Christian women cut off their hair because it was said that they possessed some mystic force contained in their hair, and they wished to convince their accusers that there was no such thing. Jealous husbands were in the habit of cutting off their wives' hair in order to compel them to keep indoors. In long- haired communities everyone knew that a woman's hair was cropped as a punishment, so the erring spouse was ashamed to go abroad until her hair grew again.
The ancient Egyptians cut their hair, in the first instance, from religious motives, and afterwards it became a fashion. Everyone has heard of the Nile, the great river which fertilizes that country. At times the Nile gets red, and the legend was that the water is tinged with the blood of Adonis. At these times the women used to indulge in a six-days orgy of singing and dancing. At the end they cut off their hair and cast it into the Nile. Afterwards they cut their hair off for convenience and pleasure. Egyptian women were the earliest to be emancipated, and they attained to a greater degree of freedom than any other women.
Among the Phoenicians it was the custom for women to sacrifice their hair and offer it to the gods in cases of bereavement. If a woman was averse from parting with her hair, she could pay a priest. The Lacedaemonian ladies wore their hair short and curled. The men had their beards curled. Anyone interested can examine the lovely specimens on view in the British Museum. According to the eminent French writer Chateaubriand, the women of Biblis, refusing to cut off their hair as a token of mourning for the death of Adonis, were compelled to atone for this by becoming the wives of foreigners for a day ! Ladies find it much easier to keep their hair on nowadays.
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| The bride's headdress among peasant folk was adorned with many, many flowers in Bulgaria, 1910. |
Amongst the Romans about the second century the style of hair- dressing consisted of short, curled hair. The comment of the poet Appuleius on this was : " Were she born of the wave, like Venus herself, were she perfumed and garbed in the finest array, how could one accept her, deprived as she was of Nature's finest ornament?"
In the twelfth century the hair was allowed to grow in a thick mass at the back, but was cut at the sides, and slightly curled. This was the origin of the curl that was at one time known in England as the " kiss me quick."
A poem, called " The Nut Brown Maid." written about 1500 by Bishop Percy, is a most interesting document. The lover tells his lass that if she would go with him she must cut her hair and her kirtle. In other words, shingle and wear a short skirt. This proved that if the hair becomes shorter so does the skirt and vice versa. No one has seen long hair and short skirt, and they never will. Whatever was the reason, the cutting of hair and shortening of the skirt always went together, and meant that women were about to lead a more active life.
When Hungary was at war with Turkey she was helped by certain German princes. These princes wore their hair very short (nowadays they shave their heads !). In Germany it became the fashion for the ladies to cut their hair short as a token of their devotion. Further than this, a custom arose of presenting one's friend with a pair of scissors and inviting her to cut her hair short likewise.
Another woman who cut her hair short, and incidentally got into trouble over it, was Joan of Arc. Joan's mission demanded that she should live an active life, and she prepared for it by cutting her hair and shortening her skirt. Could anyone imagine Joan of Arc accomplishing what she did with long hair and a long skirt?
In the early seventeenth century (1630) the hair was generally divided into three parts: the chignon was worn on top, the front was cut, and the sides were cut short and curled corkscrew fashion. This mode necessitated the use of special irons. These were hollow, and were undoubtedly the ancestors of the modern curling iron.
Ninon de Lenclos, a contemporary of Charles I in England and Louis XIII in France, was responsible for short-hair fashion about 1653. One of her preferred admirers, the Marquis of Villarseaux, was so jealous that he fell ill. Ninon, to prove to him that he had no reason to suspect her loyalty, cut off her lovely tresses and sent them to him. Seeing that his mistress had sacrificed her "crowning glory" he sent for her. She disappeared and neither of them was seen for a week. The cutting of her hair was not in vain ! After this, hair a la Ninon became very fashionable. In the National Gallery can be seen a portrait of Nell Gwynne with a similar head-dressing. Why Nell had her hair cut is not known, but it is a very lovely portrait.
In the reign of Louis XIV the close-cropped hair was heard of for the first time. The hair was cut right on to the neck. Mme. de Sevigne described the fashion in one of her letters to her daughter.
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| The conservative bride of the 1920s wore her hair rolled up on top of her head and then added a long veil topped with a laurel wreath. |
Louis XVI's reign was the era of voluminous head-dresses. In England there was a tax of one guinea on powdered head-dresses. Those who wished to be fashionable had to produce the tax-gatherer's receipt. The pictures of Romney, Reynolds and Gainsborough show to what extremes ladies went in hairdressing. But even so, hair always wanted cutting, and scissors (and naturally some one to manipulate them) have alwavs been necessary.
The next period of any importance was that of the French Revolution. Robespierre was the man who sent thousands of people to the guillotine mainly, as he said, " aristocrats." Before a lady could be properly guillotined she had to have her hair bobbed. It is believed that the same custom of short hair is still popular in prisons. Revolutions bring excesses in every way. After the famous "9th Thermidor" France 'sighed with relief. Social functions became once more the order of the day. There was a ball given by ci-devant aristocrats, and anybody (ladies) who had suffered loss by the guillotine of any relation had their hair cut a la victime. Moreover, the arrival in Paris of some antique statues of Caracalla and Titus gave an impetus to the short-hair fashion. Talma, playing a part in the tragedy of " Brutus," reconstituted the role according to the purest tradition. He wore, over his powdered hair, a wig a la Titus made by Duplan, a hairdresser of the Rue des Petits Champs. Josephine de Beauharnais strongly influenced Bonaparte, just back from his campaign in Italy, to go to Duplan to have his hair shortened. Bonaparte obeyed, and all his general staff followed the new coiffure, which had the advantage of being more economical and hygienic than the old one. Rapidly the " Titus " was generalized and lasted for over fourteen years. Just about this time not even ten per cent, of ladies wore long hair.
After this a new fashion came about an intermediate fashion between the shingle and long hair. A turban was worn to hide the growing short hair. A turban worn judiciously does not give the short effect. Ladies wore the turban and supplemented its camouflage by employing false hair. This was quite in accordance with reaction.
The nineteenth century showed no abatement of women's sacrifices in the matter of hair. George Sand (who was a woman) cut her hair and sent it to her lover, Alfred de Musset, the poet. The lover taking no notice, she retired to a country residence, where as a solace she set herself to write that delightful historical romance "Mauprat"
Next came the early 'eighties (1880-5) when there was undoubtedly a short-hair fashion.
In Brittany, to be sure, women cut their hair for various reasons. Probably the first was that the Breton women wore bonnets. Another was that hair could easily be cut and swapped for sheets or pillow-cases. Even to-day there were crosses erected on the cliffs at many places. These crosses were very frequently adorned with hair. Most Bretons were sailors, and the tresses were (still sacrificing) those of mothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts who wished their men a safe return. The sacrifice of hair was to ensure a calm sea. In some parts of Brittany it was considered unlucky for a wife to comb her hair in the presence of her husband result, she cut off as much as she could, so that combing was unnecessary. On June 24, the fete of wSt. John, Breton maidens who had been unsuccessful in finding ''young men" cut their hair off as a sacrifice in the hope that they would find husbands. This procedure was verv successful.
How came fashion to be created ? Fashion had many putative fathers. The originator of any fashion is difficult to pick out. No man or woman living now can claim to be the "father" or "mother"
of the bob or shingle. Through '' The Nut Brown Maid," Joan of Arc, Ninon de Lenclos and a few others there is no doubt that violent action on the part of women has produced short hair and short skirts.
We now arrive at that most useful body of organized femininity -- the W.A.A.C.S. They reached their apotheosis somewhere about 1918. They always looked the picture of health. Thev drove motor-cars and generally ran the British Army at that time. The ranks of the ''Waacs" was no place for old ladies of sixty-five or thereabouts. That came later, about 1922, as far as hair-shortening was concerned. Between 1918 and 1922 the only women who bobbed their hair were those who had been on active service.
About 1922 milliners began to take a hand in the proceedings. They invented a hat known as the "cloche." Ladies found when purchasing their hats that there was a new war on hats versus hair! They repaired to their unfortunate hairdresser and told him that he was a rotten hairdresser, that he was stupid, and, owing to him, they couldn't find a hat to suit them.
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| Modern bridal headdress of 1920s, hair worn bobbed. |
If the milliners had had their way they would have done away with hair. But, hair being the hairdresser's living, he cut ladies' hair a la victime. Again came the milliners, and the shingle resulted. The Eton crop, which had not really supervened, was "lovely." "Why, it makes women look nearly as pretty as men!"
Why are women looking for a new fashion? Because there are so many ill-trained and inferior workmen. Workmen who have no knowledge of contours or anatomy. Workmen who leave a lady's hair in such a condition that a self-respecting rat would refuse to gnaw it. The result is bound to be that women will look for some mode of hairdressing not so conspicuous. This will probably be a reversion to a style similar to that brought about by the imitators of La Martin there will be an intermediate fashion of hair a trifle longer than the shingle, which will give the hairdresser (the real hairdresser) a chance to manipulate his tools, and produce a better result.
Hairdressing is a sound proposition as long as the essential rules are observed. It is no good cutting the hair of a giraffe-necked lady in the same manner as a short-necked one. Nothing looks worse in the London theatres than the fearful array of bare necks, especially those that have been shaved some time previously and now bear traces of the new growth. The bad artist has bigger chances with long hair. The short-hair man who can soften down those " bumps " which the phrenologist loves and the hairdresser hates is the successful man in the hairdressing profession.
Newspapers have been announcing great changes in Court hair-dressing. That is a mere matter of logic. Take the average shingled lady. Where could the Court hairdresser affix the necessary feathers, diamond tiaras, veils, etc. ? If there is no hair there is no foundation. What does a long-necked, shingled woman, with two or three yards of train, look like ?
Women have, through the ages, sacrificed their hair to some deity or other. At the present day it is to the goddess Fashion. But be hair worn long or short, bobbed or shingled, there is, and will always be, plenty of work for the man or woman whose mission in life it is to make woman more charming (if possible) than he has found her.
Fashionable Coiffure from different decades.
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